Lawmaker pushes for book industry support as shops shrink

As Macau’s physical bookstores continue to face shrinking operating space due to a variety of factors, legislator Lam Fat Iam has called for the establishment of an institutionalized system to support the book industry, renewing his commitment to leveraging his professional background to promote the development of a cultural Macau.

Lam’s office, in collaboration with the Association for the Publication of Cultural Education in Macao, recently hosted a symposium on the development of the city’s brick-and-mortar bookstores and publishing industry, featuring a keynote address by the Cultural Affairs Bureau president, Deland Leong.

According to Lam’s opening remarks, in the age of intelligence technology, Macau’s physical bookstores have seen their operating space continue to shrink in recent years due to factors such as changing economic conditions, shifting consumer spending patterns, the rise of online shopping, and evolving reading habits.

He noted that the publishing, distribution, and sales chain has yet to achieve sufficient economies of scale, while the local market remains limited in size and the reading population base still needs to expand. These structural and long-term challenges, Lam said, have placed significant pressure on the industry’s development.

Lam pointed out that brick-and-mortar bookstores and the local publishing industry should be regarded as integral components of Macau’s public cultural development, serving as vital forces in promoting reading among all citizens, preserving the city’s collective memory, and passing down cultural values.

He noted that this requires not only the industry’s own efforts to strengthen itself but also institutional support from the government. In cultural development plans, reading promotion policies, community cultural initiatives, and policies to support the cultural industry, Lam said, brick-and-mortar bookstores and local publishing should be given a clear and defined role.

Among his recommendations, Lam emphasized the need to establish collaborative mechanisms in policy formulation, demand matching, resource sharing, reading promotion, and procurement and distribution to enhance overall resource efficiency, and to build a regular cooperation platform led by the government involving schools, libraries, bookstores, and publishers to foster closer partnerships among all stakeholders.